Parenting is a tough gig on the best of days, and when you’re living a blended family going through upheaval?

Forget about it.

This poor woman has been a stepmom to her oldest daughter for years, but now that her mom is back in the picture, everything is blowing up.

What’s worse is that her husband’s family isn’t being supportive at all.

Here’s what happened.

AITA for insisting to my husband and his parents that I need help with our kids and we need to hire someone and it’s not me trying to pawn my stepdaughter off on someone else?

My husband and I have three kids in our home. My stepdaughter is 9, I have known her since she was 2 and I became her stepmom when she was 4.

We also have a 3 year old son and a 10 month old daughter together. To give some background info first:

My stepdaughter’s mom was not in the picture when I met my husband.

She never wanted to claim any parental responsibilities and when I met my husband, his ex had accumulated a lot of child support debt and had not seen my stepdaughter since the hospital.

She loves her stepdaughter like her own child.

I signed up for being a second parent and I love my stepdaughter and in my heart I consider her one of my kids just as much as my bio children.

We had such a good relationship.

She would sometimes call me mom, sometimes my name, but she’d always say my husband and I were her parents and she adored her brother when he was born.

When the kid’s biological mother came back into the picture, things went downhill fast.

Over two years ago her mom came back into the picture and said she wanted to see my stepdaughter. My husband said it would need to be a gradual thing but my stepdaughter had a right to know her.

His ex didn’t like that and sued for full custody, and yes, after having nothing to do with her for 7 years.

She lost but this started us on a step up plan for her to gain some custody. It’s been hell.

My relationship with my stepdaughter suffered badly because of all this. Her relationship with her siblings has also suffered.

She is rude to me now, refuses to listen to me and rejects the three of us. It’s always worse after she sees her mom.

My husband took this issue to court and the judge made it clear he will never sever the relationship between mom and daughter, no matter what.

She’s really struggling, and finally realized she needed to ask for help.

I’m struggling. If I give her the time and attention needed, it comes at the cost to our younger kids.

But if I focus just on them, it’s not giving her the time and attention she needs and the counselor told us she needs to see I’m not going anywhere. She really emphasized that it was important.

The counselor even spoke to the judge (a different one this time) and the judge said he was going to follow the previous judges decision that contact is never to be severed between mother and daughter.

My husband brought this issue back to court because it was getting worse.

So now we’re at a point where I can’t be in charge of all three at the same time all day, especially now school is out but even during school time it’s too much.

I told my husband we need to hire some sort of helper for me with the kids.

Only to have no one support her.

He was against it and told me it was a big expense after we spent a fortune on court and therapy.

His parents heard us talking about it the other day and they jumped in to say I wouldn’t do this if all three were my bio kids and I just want to pawn my stepdaughter off on someone else.

I insisted this was not true to all three and I insisted I needed help because the kids will suffer in the long run and so will my mental health.

My husband felt guilty because I got very emotional but his parents said I just proved I wouldn’t do this if they were all really mine.

AITA?

I just know Reddit is going to be on her side.

The top comment is angry with the husband for not seeing her struggling.

They think the judges are dropping the ball.

Everyone is angry with the birth mother here.

It’s clear stepmom needs some actual help.

Because we can all see that she’s nearing her breaking point.

This poor woman sounds so overwhelmed.

I hope her husband comes around soon.

If you enjoyed that story, read this one about a mom who was forced to bring her three kids with her to apply for government benefits, but ended up getting the job of her dreams.